Workers of Vucub Huan Alliance
19 May 2021Lotus Terranus
After many years under the heel of, first, the Vucub Huan Corporation and, then, the gang known in Vucub Huan as the Hand, workers on Walter Prospect were primed to revolt. Fear of The Hand suppressed this for many years, but organisation was also hampered by differences over the form any revolution should take. These idea were as diverse as selling the entire workforce into Imperial slavery in return for better working conditions, a communist takeover of the means of production, and the wholesale reconfiguring of the station into a pirate megaship.Ultimately, the common enemies in the Corporation and the Hand united these competing factions. They agreed on the principle of trade unionism, and agreed to disagree on the details. To prevent this becoming a problem, each party could run their own habitation zone, and the station would be run as a confederation. The committee agreed to name itself Workers of Vucub Huan Alliance. What remained unclear was how this could be achieved.
The solution was found by activists within the Workers' social democratic wing. Alexa Conrad, a worker who had been born on Walter Prospect and had never previously seen the outside of the station, smuggled herself onto a Type-6 Transporter taking refined superconductors to Bowersox Enterprise in the Maljenni system. "Even the light gravity of the docking bay was almost too much for me," she later wrote in her memoirs. "But I knew that from here, I had the freedom to go anywhere, and that I had to use that freedom to finally liberate Vucub Huan."
At Bowersox Enterprise, Alexa Conrad established contact with activists in the Federation's Liberal Party. This was fortunate timing. Jasmina Halsey was preparing her campaign strategy for upcoming presidential elections, and was looking to unite the right-leaning expansionists with left-leaning liberals by taking back control of corporate systems which had seceded from the Federation and were exploiting their workers. With the Vucub Huan Corporation's history dating back to ancient Earth, this made them an ideal target.
Conrad travelled to Rhea to join Halsey's team, and Workers of Vucub Huan Alliance was formally aligned with the Liberal Party. Following Halsey's electoral victory and ascent to the presidency in 3300, a Farragut-class battle cruiser was despatched to Vucub Huan and blockaded Walter Prospect. From the bridge of the cruiser, Alexa Conrad made the Federation's ultimatum, demanding the turnover of the station and the operation of the refinery to the Workers. Neither the Corporation nor the Hand had the space-based firepower to resist, but they effectively held the station's population as human shields.
A lengthy standoff ensued. This was ended when a negotiated settlement was reached, allowing the Corporation to continue its operations with Workers' oversight, and the Hand to continue providing life support services whilst turning over control of security and transportation. Personal debts to the Hand were not to be completely written off, but retroactively recalculated at 5% per annum over Federal base rate. Conrad was cheered from every compartment as she finally returned to Walter Prospect. Workers of Vucub Huan Alliance, on behalf of the Federation, were officially in control of the system.
The Federal takeover of system injected new life into Vucub Huan. Not only could residents of Walter Prospect travel freely to and from the station for a reasonable price, but new investment was opened up, enabling planetary settlements to be established for the first time. Chief amongst these was a new military base established by the Federation, intended to serve as a forward base for President Halsey's further ambitions for expansion, as well as providing security for Vucub Huan B (which, at 30 kLs from Vucub Huan A, had been thus far ignored by the Vucub Huan Corporation). These ambitions were frustrated by lack of success elsewhere, and Halsey employed Alexa Conrad as an advisor to help regain momentum. Tragically, Conrad was one of the many lost during the Starship One incident, and the military settlement was named Conrad Base in her memory.
The expansionist agenda continued in Conrad's absence, with Workers of Vucub Huan Alliance establishing themselves as minor players in several nearby systems. This participation in the wider region worked both ways, and this soon led to a number of the groups within the confederacy deciding to secede, in favour of aligning with external factions. This first of these was the pro-Imperial faction, which, dissatisfied with the Workers' Federal alignment, joined with Codorain Emperor's Grace in campaigning for control of Vucub Huan. Other fringe Workers groups aligned with alternative Federal factions, such as the Social Dhathaarib Revolution Party, or the Green Party of Raksaka. (Given Vucub Huan has no terraformable planets, their plans deserve a separate article...)